Microcontroller With Interpreter and Extra Goodies
The BASIC Stamp is, at the heart, a microcontroller with interpreter software built in. These devices also come with additional support circuitry, such as an EEPROM, voltage regulator, ceramic oscillator, etc. BASIC Stamps are ideal for beginners because they are easy to program, quite powerful, and relatively cheap-a whole startup package costs around $150 dollars or so. These devices are also very popular among inventors and hobbyist, and you'll find a lot of helpful literature, application notes, and fully tested projects on the Internet. The original stamp was introduced in 1993 by Parallax, Inc. It got its name from the fact that it resembled a postage stamp. The early version of the BASIC Stamp was the REV D, while later improvements lead to the BASIC Stamp I (BSI) and to the BASIC Stamp II (BSII). Here we'll focus mainly on the BSI and the BSII. Both the BSI and BSII have a specially tailored BASIC interpreter firmware built into the microelectronics EPROM. For both st